Tense is one of the central issues of linguistics, and has been the focus of much attention in recent years. In this book, Declerck offers a detailed discussion of the temporal structures that are expressed by the combination of tense forms with the conjunction when.

He is able to develop and test his earlier model and in doing so reveals the close relation between the semantics of when and the English tense system. Included are a detailed functional typology of English when-clauses, a model of the English tense system, an analysis of the possible tense combination - both normal and special - in head clauses and when-clauses, a discussion of the many different temporal interpretations of when-clauses, and a treatment of the special class of "narrative when-clauses". The specific focus is on how situations are located in time sentences involving both a head clause and a when-clause.